They Rule the World
by Superagaentv
Summary: Written for Arithmancy class. Has characters from my fic - Do you Believe in Monsters?.


Task: For this assignment, I want you to write me a story about the differences between a pureblood receiving their Hogwarts letter, and a muggleborn.

No Pain, no Gain: Playing with someone, the destruction of someone or something,Vampires rule the world.

Ranunculus - a very temperature sensitive flower, it seems. Write about a situation where it is safest to hit the exact middle between two points/states of something.

* * *

She didn't remember putting it in book.

Seeing it, she knew she should not have brought it with her.

It was a mistake.

A fatal one.

"This is a joke, isn't it. You are playing with me?" Tessie sat quietly, the letter still in her hands, her thumbs moving the edges of the parchment with gentle reverence as she watched her friend shake her head. "But your name," she started, her voice merely a hushed whisper.

"I know." There was no reply that made her nerves settle.

"But it can't be," Tessie looked up at her, worried. "It can't just be a a coincidence that you share the same name as-"

"The Fawley family, pureblooded in every sense?" Gwen swallowed, looking around nervously. "Joke is on me then, because my poor family had never heard of magic until I was born."

Tessie nodded slowly, handing the letter back to the girl.

Taking it gingerly, Gwen recalled the first moments she had ever read her invitation to study at the school. She had been so excited, her mother had been glowing.

 _"Imagine," her mum gushed, handing the letter to her younger sister, "A wizard in the family."_

 _"I think it is a witch, mum," Polly corrected, being the genius of the family at the ripe age of five._

 _"A witch then, oh Nie," Ellie smiled, touching her daughter's head. "You really are amazing, so like your father."_

"Is it really so different?" she asked, touching the letters which were now beginning to fade.

"No, not entirely." Tessie explained, "The main difference is written within the main paragraph. In our letters, Purebloods that is, it is assumed we know how everything works. There is no need to tell our parents how the process works, or what we will be studying. For example, where your letter states that ' _every effort will be made to ensure complete, and total transition into the wizarding word'_ or _'attached is an excerpt of the Act to which was read to you when your child was first found to be with magic'_ The language, it-"

"Is clearly meant to be read by one with no magical knowledge." Gwen concluded, folding the letter up and tucking it back into the book it had been absentmindedly placed in.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Tessie prompted, "I don't care about blood status."

"Myrtle died two years ago." Gwen whispered, looking up. "I knew when I first came here that it was better to be visible then invisible. No one knew Myrtle, not really – but _everyone_ knew her blood status."

"But why lie?" Tessie prompted, leaning forward in order to keep her voice down.

"I didn't." Gwen admitted. "I never told anyone anything about me, I kept to my self – you know that. We didn't even talk until our third year. I never knew that people assumed I was a pureblood, until…." Gwen recalled Tom's reaction to her being frightened, his friend's statement in the train car. "I'm frightened, Tessie."

"Because I have seen the letter?" her friend asked, hurt clear in her voice.

"Not exactly. Though," Gwen admitted. "I don't know that I will survive it."

"Stop talking like that." Tessie scolded, "You are perfectly safe at Hogwarts."

 _Should I say it,_ she wondered, _should I tell her my suspicions?_

"It's Tom." She stated finally, after what seemed like an eon. "He's obsessive, and not romantically. I quit the Slug Club, Tessie, just to have one more place I can be without him hovering over my shoulder."

"Well we all know there is something between you two, always has been. But why have you never said?" Tessie inquired, touching Gwen's hand gently. "You know I would have helped you, or at least offered you protection of some kind."

"Because," Gwen whispered, glancing back at her friend. "First rule, never show predators weakness. Second rule, never give them cause to attack." she sighed, "Because, hell Tessie – if I spoke up about it all, it would be as plain as the writing on my acceptance letter. I can't afford to have them know I don't belong."

"This isn't your own demise," Tessie stated, "I mean, the way I think of you hasn't changed. _You_ aren't different."

They both knew that this changed everything. The knowledge of anyone being Muggle-born put people at risk.

"Tell the fucking blood suckers that." Gwen stated flatly. "They rule the world."


End file.
